I just stumbled across a fun series called The Mask of Inanna. It's a contemporary series available for free download at www.themaskofinanna.com. The show is about the writer/producer of a 1950s radio show called "After Dark," who in 2008 is brought from a nursing home to a lighthouse on an island on the New England coast, where, with the help of a rebellious teenage girl, he begins broadcasting his old shows over a pirate radio station. The nine-episode series is being podcast in two seasons. Season one (five episodes) is available for download now. Season two (four episodes) will begin in June.

I haven't listened to all of the first five yet, but what I've heard so far is pretty good.

Hey folks, I'm the writer/director/editor/producer/everything-but-voice-actor for The Mask of Inanna and I am just floored at the great response we've been getting. Thank you so much for sticking with us and I hope you find the show only getting better from here.

I want to clarify something about the last show (Season 2, Episode 4, as you pointed out, crich70!). There's a reason why there are only four episodes in Season 2 - the final episode will be a two-hour spectacular. We're pulling out all the stops since everything's been building to this!

But this also means that, since I do all the editing by my lonesome on my lil Adobe Audition-powered laptop, the final episode won't be available until January 2012 (Probably the 15th or the 22nd). But as always, I will release trailers before then.

I'm sorry to make everyone wait. But if you like what you've heard so far, this will be worth it! Especially for our last little show-within-a-show which will be filled with high seas panache and spectacle!

Again, thanks to everyone for listening. I keep myself on schedule for you guys

We are honored that you have joined us. Thank you very much for chiming in and clarifying things. I apologize for misspeaking based on an incorrect assumption. Based on what I've heard so far, I'm sure January's series finale will be well worth the wait. And thank you for doing your special part to help keep this art form we all love fresh and vital for the digital age.

Perhaps when things settle down for you somewhat, you can give us some insights into creating and producing a modern audio drama for the Web.

1. On the www.maskofinanna.com home page, click the desired episode on the episode menu at the right. This will take you to that episode's page.

2. On the episode's page, look for the play button on the left, just below the episode description. You can stream the episode by clicking the play button or download it by right-clicking the "Audio MP3" button Just below that.

3. In the contextual menu that appears, click "Save Link As.." (or whatever the equivalent is in Windows; I'm on a Mac at the moment) and save the file.

Let me know if you have any trouble and I'll upload the existing shows (with Alicia's permission, of course) so Brad can put them on our site.

Cheers!

missy wrote:

These shows won't download (MP3 format) from the site...when I click to download the pilot ep, it just never opens...any suggestions? Thanks

I've heard Missy's issue before. The "download" links are actually just 1kb reference files which point the browser to the actual MP3. That is how the PodPress plugin tracks how often the MP3 files are accessed. But in some cases, it sounds some apps actually try to play the reference file, or download the reference file and not the MP3 file it points to.

As far as insights on creating the show, is there anything in particular you want to know? We have a bunch of posts on our blog about the influences behind the show, if that would help out at all: http://www.themaskofinanna.com/blog/page/3/

Hey folks, I'm the writer/director/editor/producer/everything-but-voice-actor for The Mask of Inanna and I am just floored at the great response we've been getting. Thank you so much for sticking with us and I hope you find the show only getting better from here.

I want to clarify something about the last show (Season 2, Episode 4, as you pointed out, crich70!). There's a reason why there are only four episodes in Season 2 - the final episode will be a two-hour spectacular. We're pulling out all the stops since everything's been building to this!

But this also means that, since I do all the editing by my lonesome on my lil Adobe Audition-powered laptop, the final episode won't be available until January 2012 (Probably the 15th or the 22nd). But as always, I will release trailers before then.

I'm sorry to make everyone wait. But if you like what you've heard so far, this will be worth it! Especially for our last little show-within-a-show which will be filled with high seas panache and spectacle!

Again, thanks to everyone for listening. I keep myself on schedule for you guys

Sounds like the wait will be worth it. I mean I can't think of any other multi-part program that has a two hr completion. I'll be looking forward to when it's all put together and available.

I just surfed by the Mask of Inanna Web site and was pleasantly surprised to find the series finale has been posted ahead of schedule! I just finished downloading it and will give it a listen in the next day or so and let you know what I think (with as few spoilers as possible).

The episode has been posted in two parts. Part 1 runs about 58 minutes and part 2 runs about 80 minutes. The home page, www.themaskofinanna.com, has links to play or download the finale episodes as well as links for the entire series.

I just finished listening to part two of the finale and all I have to say is Alicia did not exaggerate when she said they were pulling out all the stops for it. A fantastic ending to a fantastic story.

Alicia,
Thank you and your colleagues for sharing your art with us and thank you for joining us here on this forum. I look forward to hearing whatever you cook up next. Do let us know when we can tune in.

I jut downloaded the complete run of episodes last night and am burning them to CD's for backup copies. Haven't listened to the series as yet, but I love radio drama and waited on listening to it til I could hear the complete series of episodes. It's good to see new radio programs being made again. I remember listening to Himan Brown's CBSRMT as a very young child when he tried to restart the age of classic radio programs and was sorry to see it go off the air. The classic radio programs are better than a lot of what is on TV now days. That's ironic when you consider that TV replaced the radio programs.

Yes, it's kind of ironic that it took the Internet and digital technology to resurrect this art form, but the renaissance is upon us. Vintage shows are being transferred to mp3 and are now more widely available than at any time in history and new productions are being created in significant numbers as well, albeit in more of a homebrewed fashion. The amazing thing is that most of the new productions are being done simply for the love of doing it. Very little effort is being made to sell the material, although donations are accepted, sort of a digital equivalent of playing for tips. Of course, it would be great if such endeavors were financially lucrative enough for people to make a living doing it.

It's also really cool that the technology has progressed to the point that high quality production values can be achieved with relatively low cost hardware and software. Alicia Gorenson shared earlier that she did all the editing for The Mask of Inanna on her laptop using Adobe Audition. I'm not sure what sort of studio facilities she used for the actual recording, but the final product rivals most contemporary BBC productions in quality. I use "the Beeb" as a benchmark because they're still actively producing a significant number of audio dramas each year.

Thank you for the kind words and the favorable comparison to The Beeb! I think with the state of current technology, The Beeb kicks our butt seven ways to Sunday but in comparison to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy era Beeb, our material comes out all right

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"most of the new productions are being done simply for the love of doing it"

That, and the fact that audiences are moving toward technological delivery systems for their entertainment. I do have a professionally published novel out, but my subsequent novels (on my website http://www.alicia-goranson.com) couldn't find a publisher, alas. However, putting out an audio drama provides a comparable listenership to the readership I had for my first book. I'm just going where the audience is!

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Very little effort is being made to sell the material

It's more like there's very few places to actually sell it. We're going to sell higher quality versions on podiobooks.com next, but other than that, it is very difficult to get the word out about your audio project. I tried Project Wonderful advertising and it didn't bring in enough people for the money. There are various forums but your message can get drowned out by some of the more well-known audio projects. Without a dedicated library like archive.org is becoming, I'm scared of The Mask of Inanna vanishing from the web, only showing up in the geekiest of "whatever happened to..." forum threads. (Obviously I'll keep the files online but I don't have many outlets for promoting the show.)

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I'm not sure what sort of studio facilities she used for the actual recording

A small Sunday school in a church basement with sound-dampening blankets hung around the microphone area. We have up to five Sennheiser mikes in the space. It's noisier than it sounds - I do a lot of cleanup.

Hope that helps! Thanks for your support and we'll let you know what's up next! (Actually, it's a local show called "Doctor Who and the Casino of Robots" that we may put up online like my last Dr. Who show.)

I'm not sure what sort of studio facilities she used for the actual recording

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A small Sunday school in a church basement with sound-dampening blankets hung around the microphone area. We have up to five Sennheiser mikes in the space. It's noisier than it sounds - I do a lot of cleanup.

From what I have heard about how Radio programs were produced in the day (long before high fidelity and high tech sound effects) you are in good company. For example the sound of the Martian cylinder unscrewing in War of the Worlds was actually the sound of a mason jar being unscrewed in the bowl of a toilet. I wager their sound proofing wasn't the quality of a state of the art recording studio of today either.

I just stumbled across a fun series called The Mask of Inanna. It's a contemporary series available for free download at www.themaskofinanna.com. The show is about the writer/producer of a 1950s radio show called "After Dark," who in 2008 is brought from a nursing home to a lighthouse on an island on the New England coast, where, with the help of a rebellious teenage girl, he begins broadcasting his old shows over a pirate radio station. The nine-episode series is being podcast in two seasons. Season one (five episodes) is available for download now. Season two (four episodes) will begin in June.